Facts about this deal-Why We Must Chart a Different Path
By Amb. Emmanuel Mwamba
• No Debt forgiveness or debt cancellation has been achieved in the deal.
• Brace yourself for harder times ahead as we begin to service the debt beginning 2024. It’s maturity dates due and interests that were negotiated and deferred to 12-20years.
• the last 3 years, Zambian Government has not been servicing it’s debt since December 2020. What have we done with the resources and savings that should have been directed to debt service? What happens now as we begin to pay the interests?
•Lazard despite the repeated political scandalisation by Government and it’s official, was part of the Creditors Committee and led the negotiations on behalf of Zambia!
•Some incidental good news to this deal, support will immediately come from as the second release of $188million will be made by the IMF. An outstanding balance of $924million of the Extended Credit Facility (ECF)will be released in due course after every successful staff-level review and board approval. The ECF was designed as a 38month program.
• Zambia received a loan from the World Bank of $750million in 2022. What was this money spent on?
ITS A BAD DEAL
My Recommendations;
1. Concentrate on raising domestic revenue by cancelling tax holidays and unnecessary incentives that have been given to the mining sector. By 2021, Zambia was earning over $1.1billion but is now earning $400million from this sector
2. Develop and take control of other mining opportunities and low hanging fruits in the gold, sugilite and gemstone sub-sector.
3. Stop the grand corruption in Government large procurements in fertiliser, medicine, oil and other sectors currently bleeding the Treasury.
4. Plan to produce and export food for 400million people around SADC by utilising the industrious small-holder farmers and develop the farming blocks that already have free and available one million hectares of land.
5. Focus on the Economy and not your political opponents. Stop the rot of abusing human rights. Promote the Rule of Law and stop undermining Democracy.
6. Stop and stem the numerous and unnecessary foreign travels by the President, his Ministers and others. Implement austerity measures, stop wasteful expenditure.
7. CDF has potential to bring development at local level but sadly, it has now degenerated to a partisan feeding and corrupt frenzy where loans, contracts and grants are benefiting targeted cooperatives. Regulations around purchase of capital equipment by every constituency as this may lock up huge resources in equipment that may provide limited return.
8. Implement constitutional requirement that obligates government to seek parliamentary approval every time they are contracting foreign debt. So far total public and publicly-guaranteed debt has jumped from $23billion in December 2021 to $32billion in 2023.
9.Negotiatiate for total debt cancellation, this deal offers no immediate benefits and merely postpones the problem.
9 . Join and Sign the international petition and campaign to cancel Zambia’s total debt currently being pioneered by Debt Justice.
Hey check out this group who are doing great work around debt: